Breathing easier in Halifax

Proposed ban on pesticides - which are particularly detrimental to children and the elderly - is the latest chapter in a long history of environmental activism in the Nova Scotia capital

By: Pat Daley

  There could be a run on dandelion weeders in Halifax garden centres this summer if a city advisory committee on pesticide use gets its way. Following the committee's recommendations, the Halifax Regional Municipality voted last Tuesday night to have staff prepare a bylaw phasing in a ban on home and municipal use of chemicals designed to kill weeds, insects, fungus, and other "pests."
  Halifax could become the first large Canadian municipality to institute an outright ban on the chemicals. Similar rules already exist in the smaller Quebec communities of Hudson and Chelsea. And other cities, like Guelph, Ontario, are encouraging residents to use alternatives when it comes to caring for their lawns.
  But Halifax has a history of this kind of activism. Policies have been instituted widely throughout the public and private sectors on scented products in the workplace. And the province is home to the Nova Scotia Environmental Health Centre, a world leader in clinical treatment of and research into environmental sensitivities. Some people say it all stems from an incident in 1991 when 600 staff at Camp Hill Medical Centre fell ill during renovations on the building.
 

"Many pesticides used in Canada today were evaluated when environmental and human health standards were less stringent. The government has not kept its long-standing commitment to re-evaluate them against today's tougher standards." - Brian Emmett, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development

  Dr. Roy Fox is director of the Environmental Health Centre. He says that Camp Hill had a large impact, but people suffering from multiple chemical sensitivities had already started coming forward in the 1980s. A committee set up by the Nova Scotia government decided their illnesses were psychological, but the province recognized people were having problems and began to develop a part-time clinic in 1989, Fox says.
  Citing two U.S. studies that put the number of people with doctor-diagnosed environmental illness at about six per cent of the population, Fox says he's excited that Halifax is moving forward on a pesticide ban.
  "The indiscriminate use of pesticides on lawns doesn't make sense," he says. "There's a heavy price for the population to pay."
  The fight against pesticides has been raging around the world. Big chemical companies like Dupont and Monsanto continue to produce toxins that researchers have found detrimental to people - especially children and the elderly - and their pets. There are claims that exposure can cause delays in child development, seizures, allergies, asthma, and leukemia and other cancers.
 

From www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/RATE

  A group called RATE, or Rational Alternatives to Toxins in the Environment, has been pushing for the ban in Halifax. The first victory was getting the provincial government to give Nova Scotia municipalities the right to make by-laws regulating pesticide use.
  Lawn care companies have made some effort to accommodate people who are very sensitive to the chemicals by doing all their spraying in one area at the same time, says RATE spokesperson Maureen Reynolds. Nevertheless, she says, there are people who have to leave the areas where they live for between 30 and 81 days every summer. Reynolds herself built a cottage so she would have someplace to go.
  Opponents to the ban say that the federal government does an adequate job regulating the chemicals and declaring their safety. However, a RATE fact sheet says, "they test for the acute (not chronic) effects of single (not multiple) chemicals on healthy (not sick, chemically sensitive or immuno-suppressed etc.) adult (not fetal or young) animal (not human) subjects exposed over short (not long) periods of time."
  And Canada's record is not all that great. Last May, Brian Emmett, Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, released his report on Canada's handling of toxic chemicals. He says, "many pesticides used in Canada today were evaluated when environmental and human health standards were less stringent. The government has not kept its long-standing commitment to re-evaluate them against today's tougher standards."
  Among his findings:

• Of countries responding to an OECD survey, only Canada and the Slovak republic do not track pesticide sales

• Voluntary programs to reduce the release of toxic industrial chemicals may not be sufficient to manage priority toxic substances

• Monitoring for the presence and effects of toxic substances in the environment is incomplete and inconsistent

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